My first installment to the "Green Office" segment is about the office chair. I walked into a friend’s downtown office (a lawyer) and he had some beat up, patchy furniture inside. I asked him what the deal was and he responded that it was all the firm provided. That gets me, big-time. For all you professionals out there, especially young professionals, your job is your domain and if the bossman isn’t providing it, do it yourself. My credo, dress and office like the person who’s job you want to have. So I prefer CEO-style all the way. If clients come in my office, they’ll see CEO-style. Compare that to the cubicle next door and they’ll form an impression about your position in the firm. You’ve got to be a rainmaker, so this is all about looking the part.

As far as office chairs go, there seems to be a race to ergonomics–"Ooh, nice, is that so and so’s chair?" "Did corporate get that for ya?" "How much does one of those run?" You get the drift. Steelcase, Inc. makes this entire process very easy, actually, modern + green easy. They have two chairs that are Cradle to Cradle™ Certified Silver: Think™ + Leap®. I’m going to focus on Think. Think also received the BusinessWeek 2006 Gold IDEA award, IIDEX Sustainable Design Gold award, NeoCon Editor’s Choice Award, and the Red Dot Award for Product Design (Germany). But forget accolades, here’s where sustainability meets the chair.

First, cradle to cradle for this chair means the company considered what goes into the chair, how it is made, and what happens to the chair when it is no longer a chair. The chair is designed to be highly recyclable + safe for environmental health. Second, the chair is up to 99% recyclable by weight + up to 44% recycled content. Third, disassembly takes about 5 minutes and Steelcase has set up the structure for customers to participate in recycling of their used chair. Fourth, the chair is Greenguard Indoor Air Quality Certified. But if this is too green for you, there’s more.

Think is comfortable too. It has the adjustable arms, pneumatic seat height, and innovative back "flexors" that track and respond fluidly to your natural weight and movements. So not only is this chair environmentally conscious, it’s smart, too. I think an added benefit to the chair is that one can order the thing online and have it shipped FedEx ground-style for free. So, if you’re tired of that standard office stuff and want to make a change, I’d get one of these Steelcase chairs shipped straight to the office.

The instant I saw The 505, I knew there was something about it that needed blogging. This Houston, Texas four-unit townhouse development is extremely striking and innovative–it has that modern swagger that many of us would like to call home. The goal of this project was to "be financially successful and to make responsible use of land, incorporate sustainable design principles, enhance community sensibilities, and possess an architectural identity."

Like a lot of green-built projects, The 505 incorporates Terrazzo granite floors and Interface carpet. The windows were carefully designed and placed to provide views and natural light and still provide a modicum of privacy. Lots of modern + green homes seem like nothing more than glass houses with metal roofs, but this place manages to negotiate the importance of natural light/shading and privacy.

Well, I’ve decided to hit my readers with a little environmental, architectural eye candy. I like to get political every now and then, but I really like to throw in some skyscrapers, prefabs, or dream houses here at Jetson Green (check the category cloud on the left). Of course, everything has a sustainable approach to it. Today’s post is a little different, if not impractical, but it’s deceptively time consuming–when you go to this website, you’ll find yourself gazing at all the different projects and fighting within as to whether such structures can actually work. I did for about 45 minutes and the only thing that stopped me was the sound of Colbert’s voice. Here it goes:: enter Michael Jantzen and his Portfolio.

He’s really into wind, if you can’t tell: wind shaped pavilion, wind shade roof, wind turbine observation tower, + wind tunnel footbridge. That’s good, though, because buildings that integrate environmental design into the structure can be effective. If you haven’t heard, such a building was designed to be zero energy by SOM called the Pearl River Tower (China). So these Jantzen renderings should, at a minimum, get us thinking about design, sustainability, and the endless possibilities.

The wind shaped pavilion, pictured top, is a large fabric structure with six slowly rotating segments that can be used as a public or private pavilion. <I’m thinking wedding bells, maybe?> Each segment’s rotation generates electricity for nighttime illumination. And logically, the shape and design lends itself to natural light and ventilation. Having the ability to rotate segments provides the convenience of optimizing shade when the sun starts to beat down. I think this type of creative design is necessary so people can have living and working spaces that are nimble, comfortable, healthy, and effective.

Now this is what I’m talking about. Sexy green skyscrapers and platinum green prefabs are cool, but now we’re moving into a new realm of green real estate development. Dallas-based Koll Development Company (KDC) is speculating on a new generation of buildings. Actually, they’re going to be LEED CS (Core + Shell) certified, but they’re also going to be modern and tech-savvy. I noticed the construction of one on the way back from DFW airport in Irving, at the southwest corner of Beltline and LBJ. KDC’s new product will be called the "Intellicenter" and they’re "Developing for the Future."

Intellicenters will feature raised floor design and energy efficiency all around. Individual workstations will have HVAC controls. The lobby will feature Terrazzo recycled glass and natural stone flooring. The green features list could go on and on. But KDC is also thinking of the bottom line and the necessary benefits to companies; their buildings aim for the following: (1) higher performance systems, (2) reduced operating expenses, (3) maximum design efficiencies, (4) increased flexibility for technological advances, and (5) environmental stewardship. For LEED design, these buildings command a premium of $2-3 more per square foot (on construction cost), which comes out to around 25 cents per square foot on a lease rate. Not bad. Customers will get that back in energy savings, increased employee productivity, and other intangibles.

In addition to this Dallas Intellicenter, KDC has Intellicenter’s under construction in Houston, Atlanta, Riverside (CA), and Charlotte. They’ve teamed up with Prudential Real Estate Investors to offer 2 million square feet of office space valued at around $200-250 million (each building will be about 150,000-200,000 sq. ft). Interestingly, each building will be almost entirely the same, which allows the developer to minimize costs (as opposed to reinventing the wheel at each location). KDC enlisted Forum Studio Inc. and Gensler for the design aspects.

Today’s a day when I feel pride as an SMU Mustang. I was taking my little pooch, Colt, to the vet for his yearlies, when I saw a HUGE wing from a wind turbine with the logo "www.vestas.com." I’ve never seen one of those up close, but it was tons bigger than I thought it would be. Anyway, Governor Perry and tons of other private companies came to SMU to announce a partnership to invest $10 billion dollars in new wind energy infrastructure. The partners include: AES Wind Generation; Airtricity, Inc.; Babcock & Brown, L.P.; Gamesa Energy Southwest; Horizon Wind Energy; John Deere Wind Energy; Orion Energy L.L.C.; PPM Energy; Renewable Energy Systems (USA); Shell Wind Energy Inc.; Superior Renewable Energy; D.H. Blattner; GE Energy L.L.C.; Mortenson; Siemens; Trinity Structural Towers, Inc.; and Vestas-Americas Inc.

To begin with, I’m a little skeptical. Recently Governor Perry came out in support of TXU’s plan to dot the Texas map with 16-17 coal plants. Not only does Kinky support renewables, but he’s against TXU. The same goes for Strayhorn and Chris Bell. I mentioned in my blog that I thought the state could do more to chase renewables and added that coal energy has hidden costs that don’t factor into the consumer’s bill–cheap energy for small towns is a small-minded solution. Nevertheless, regardless of whether Perry is political grandstanding, I’m excited about this partnership for wind energy infrastructure.

As of December 2004, about 10% of Texas’ energy needs were sourced from renewables. Under this partnership, private companies will invest capital in wind energy generation while the Public Utility Commission will construct additional transmission lines to deliver the power. Such a large investment in wind energy should help Texas diversify its energy sourcing and slow down carbon dioxide emissions. For every 1,000 megawatts of new wind energy, Texas reduces emissions by 6 million tons over a 20 year span. This is great news for the state of Texas.

The handsome Hearst Tower skyscraper achieved LEED Gold accreditation from the USGBC–it’s the first to be recognized as such in New York City. The building architect is the famous Norman Foster, and this is the third time for Jetson Green to feature one of his buildings (30 St Mary Axe + WTC 200 Greenwich). Norman Foster is literally one of the leading architects in the modern/contemporary + green building field. This building is particularly bold for its environmental mission: it used 80% recycled steel and will consume 25% less energy than its skyscraper counterparts.